Such inconsistent chapter releases…

Shut up, I do what I want! What? As long I keep releasing chapters, you’ll be happy? Not really? What do you mean they have to be good chapters? Ughh. Fine. I’ll try.

No promises. Sorry I’m kid of a spaz.

I wrote down the rough draft of like six more chapters but half of them are in random places in the story and I keep changing the story to make it better.

Over 100 followers? Alright, mission accomplished. I’m out. Bye forever. But seriously, thank you everyone for reading, commenting, favoriting, and following Dead World Online. I’m so motivated now. J

Btw if any of you see my other fiction, don’t read it. It’s not very good and I dropped it anyway. Maybe after this fiction I’ll go back and reboot it but that’s a looooooooooong way off. Probably. I’ve barely even begun to tell the story, I’m just introducing characters and world building and whatnot.

Thanks for reading. Please enjoy.

Chapter 7: Making Friends

‘My name is Frost Winterstorm, and I have sworn to become the strongest player in this game. I have three months to do so, but effectively, I will have nine months, since time flows at three times the speed while in the game. Three days in the game is only a day in reality, so I have to make the best of the time I have. Reid Therwell does not exist here, nor do his problems, concerns, or issues. There is only his knowledge, his skills, his will, and they are mine to control. From this day onward, I’m in charge.’

Frost had his resolve, knowing that he couldn’t play the game like before, thinking about useless things and giving up when things became tough. He had to throw himself into the game, become a part of it, and fight like his life depended on it. He had promised not to die, and felt that if he did die, Frost would truly be dead and the spawned replacement would be nothing but a shadow of the real thing. He knew it wasn’t rational to believe that he wouldn’t die in a game as hard as Dead World, and in fact he had already nearly died, but he thought that he couldn’t be the best unless he was truly afraid of death.

Frost ran through the forest, farming experience through killing singular Grein, avoiding the packs of three and four that were occasionally seen. He had been surviving off of the food his parents had given to him and the occasional grein steak but he was running out of everything but the latter. He had also come across wolves but decided to ignore them. He really didn’t want to fight them and it seemed they weren’t hostile to him. He had even managed to get fairly close to them before they ran off. In his time out of the game, he read some of the forums that people posted but all of them were about how to fight and kill wolves, their drops, and, likely locations to find them.

He decided to avoid meeting people again until he was level five, so he continued to avoid any parties he came across. That was the plan at least. When he found a group of five players surrounded by Grein, their health quickly disappearing, he saw that they were going to lose and had a thought. ‘It would be a shame if those weakened monsters were able to just walk off and recover so casually.’ He had just hit level four so this would be a good opportunity for him to get a boost towards level five.

He spent a few seconds formulating a plan before leaping into action, circling around the enemy. He charged in, running up a slanted stone, jumping into the air above the weakest enemy, and descending with a deadly swing that decapitated the beast. He landed on its back and jumped towards the next one before it could fall. This one still had most of its health, but Frost was confident now that he had more experience fighting them. Even without the distraction of players, he felt that he had a fair chance of fighting four healthy Grein alone, though it would be a tough fight.

The group of players, three melee types, a mage, and a cleric, was able to hold back the other two since they were now fighting on only one front, while Frost quickly took down the second monster. Luckily, the party of five couldn’t do much damage to their opponents so Frost was getting all of the experience.

Basically, he was stealing their kills and taking all of the rewards because he was a different entity than their party and all the experience went to the killer’s group. Of course, they were previously going to die anyway, so he wasn’t really stealing kills. Frost turned as the dead body collapsed, dashing forward so that he could kill the other two as well. He jumped up, using the back of a warrior who was in a low, defensive stance, and flew through the air, slashing the head of the third beast just before it could bring its huge arm down onto the party of adventurers.

The strike knocked it off balance and it stumbled backwards. Keeping an eye on the last creature, he continued to strike it in its weak spots, intent to keep it off balance. The last grein saw the damage that Frost had done to its group and became enraged, charging full speed as it focused on him alone. The beast tackled its companion in its attempt to smash him between them, but he was no longer there. He had nimbly dodged to the side, faster now that he had higher agility. He could feel himself getting stronger and faster as his stats increased.

This was his third day since entering Kharz Forest, and he could already feel the effects of his constant running, fighting, and exercising. At the end of each day, he would do sprints until his stamina ran out, then recover and do as many push ups and sit ups as he could before falling asleep. Slowly but surely, his strength, agility, and stamina increased every day.

Frost swung his sword across the neck of the last one getting a critical hit and taking off a large chunk of its health. He liked to aim for the monster’s necks because it did a little extra damage and had a high critical strike chance. A flurry of strikes hitting the beasts on the ground, keeping them down, depleted their health and they too expired. He sheathed his sword and started to walk away.

You have gained 236 experience

“W-wait,” One of the players said. “Who are you?”

“Frost.” He didn’t stop or turn around, just kept walking forward as it began to snow again. It was always snowing in the North.

“Hold up,” they chased after him. “Do you want to party up? My name is Dorian. Here let me add you as a friend.” The man’s name appeared above his head, replacing the question marks.

One of the warriors spoke up, pouting as he said with annoyance, “That guy used me as a springboard!”

“No thanks.”

“What!? Why not?”

“I don’t like to share.”

“Without our help, you’d get wrecked by a pack of wolves or a group of Grein. You’re only level four and probably have all of your stats in speed and strength. I'm betting you don't take a hit too well. We’re level six so we can defend and take hits while you attack. We also have a healer just in case you get hit.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll out-level you soon enough.” With that, he began to run, leaving the group behind. This time, they didn’t try to catch up with him. Frost decided it was time to head to the inner forest anyway, so he went there, where stronger and more tightly packed groups of monsters would be. Here, some of the trees were frozen and white, to the point that they almost appeared to be made of ice. The scene was breathtaking with the fall of snow and peaceful serenity of solitude.

He continued to move forward at a light run as the trees began to grow taller and closer together. Soon enough, he saw a creature walking about not too far away and crept closer, so he could see what it was. It was humanoid, its body tall and thin, but it was made entirely of ice. It was level nine and it was a minor ice golem. Frost didn’t bother to draw his sword, instead pulling out the staff. ‘Wouldn’t want to dull the blade,’ he thought as he crept closer, using his stalking skill to sneak up on it.

When he was right behind it, he swung at full strength, attempting to smash it in its head to stun it. Sounds of ice cracking and splintering accompanied the golem as its upper half spun and one of its thin arms with small, bladelike protrusions appearing on it aimed a strike for his head. He managed to roll to the side, reflexes taking over for a moment as he barely dodged the arm. The lower half of its body followed the upper half along with the sound of crackling ice that seemed to happen whenever it moved.

The golem walked extremely slowly but could make lightning quick movements and attacks at anything within range. Frost also suspected that the golem’s range could change somewhat since the way it moved didn’t seem to be restricted by its form. Likely, it could change the shape of its body. He smiled as he began to feel a bit of fear, mixed with a great deal of excitement and anticipation. He held the staff behind him with one hand and put the other in front of him, beckoning the golem forward as he took a deep breath. It was time to test what he could do with all of his dexterity and agility.

The creature walked forward, its entire body crackling as it grew spikes along its arms and back. It had glowing blue eyes on an otherwise perfectly round head and instead of a neck it had overlapping layers of ice like a loosely wrapped scarf. The creature was entirely made of dark ice that seemed tainted with a dark presence. It continued to slowly march towards him, and began to swing its arms slowly, butt speeding up until it’s swings were a wild vortex moving too fast to follow.

Frost spun to add speed and strength to his swing aimed at the golem’s thick leg, staying just out of the creature’s reach thanks to his long staff. The weapon bounced off of the golem’s sturdy leg, hardly doing any damage. It appeared that the legs were reinforced and he wouldn’t be able to affect them much at all. His original strike to the golem’s head had done a good deal of damage. Either its head or its body was weak to attacks while its arms and legs were used to defend itself. He would have to get through its arms to deal any damage but he couldn’t see any holes in its defense.

Frost began to probe its defense with random strikes, hoping he would find a clue to defeating it. He only managed to shave off a few of its health points, but at this rate, he would spend an entire day finishing it off. Was the entire point of this golem to just annoy players who weren’t mages? It was frustrating not being able do anything and Frost attacked with a flurry of strikes, getting too close in the process, getting hit by a sudden attack from the monster. It did a surprisingly small amount of damage but knocked him back.

That was when he saw how to beat it. When he was close enough, the arms slowed down before striking. Frost moved forward with a determined look on his face, moving to just the right spot which was barely out of the reach of the golem’s swinging arm defense. The golem’s arms slowed and he moved the staff to block the golem’s arm as he counterattacked, striking the golem’s body. He had to move back again when the golem tried to hit him, but he was able to get out of the way of the attacks. He repeated the process, each attack reducing its health more than he would have expected, until the beast was dead, collapsing into a pile of icy shards.

You have gained 151 experience

Level up!

*Ding*

You have reached level five and can now create combat skills. Calculating combat skills gained from stats and first five levels…

He reached for the drops, with a smile on his face and then heard clapping. ‘Well, fuck. That sarcastic clapping can only be one thing.’ He continued his motions, keeping the smile on his face, even though it was forced, and subtly put all of his points into agility, knowing he was in an area above his level and needed more speed if he wanted to escape from anything. He put a fist sized blue crystal and 9 silver dunari in his pack, then looked up to see a group of people watching him in a relaxed manner. He quickly scanned their group, seeing that they were all level ten or eleven. Their classes were two sword and shield warriors, a mage, a cleric, and some sort of rogue.

It was one of the sword and board warriors who had been clapping and stopped when Frost turned to look at them and his smile disappeared. ‘Motherfucker’ He could see every one of their names, meaning they were dark players also known as player killers or PKers. He sighed quietly to himself, trying to think of a way out of the situation he was in. He couldn’t be sure that he would be able to escape them with a mage casting spells at him.

The second warrior stepped forward and Frost realized that he looked exactly like the other one on closer inspection. All five of them were human with the mage and rogue being female, while the warrior twins and the cleric were male. The warrior started talking while Frost continued to analyze their group, trying to think of a way he could beat them. He realized that he should be paying attention and started to listen to what the guy was saying.

“… our prey. However, we’re fairly merciful so we’ll let you live if you give us all of your gear.” The group that was with him chuckled evilly, knowing that they weren’t going to let him live. He hadn’t heard all of it, but he knew what they were saying. They wanted to rob and kill him, deciding to give some kind of excuse as to why they were doing it. How sweet.

“Look.” Frost sighed, putting away his staff, and said mockingly, “Can we not make this one of those things where you kill me and I swear vengeance, saying you will rue the day you messed with me? I just want to farm in peace.”

The group of people paused, turning to look at each other in surprise, then started laughing loudly, doubled over. The cleric looked up, “Who do yahhhhhhh!” he screamed as Reid’s sword passed through his neck, then continued to cut him until his health ran out from a thrust to the gut. The others were stunned so they were slow to react, as he killed their cleric so swiftly and suddenly. The only one to recover quickly from her surprise was the rogue who tried to stab him with an overhead swing. He left the sword, in the cleric and grabbed the girl’s arm, tossing her with a shoulder throw that caused her to end up on her back.

He pulled out his staff, in the middle of their group, and turned into a whirlwind as he spun the staff, tripping the mage and then attacking the warriors who had finally realized what was happening as they held their swords and shields, blocking his attacks as they began to close on him. Then, he turned completely around and sprinted off into the forest, grabbing his sword along the way and knocking down the mage who tried to get up. He dodged around the rogue who was back on her feet, avoiding her in case she had or did something that could slow him down. She tried to chase him down but wasn’t able to keep up with his full speed sprint. He disappeared into the forest before they could stop him with spells or slowing effects of any kind.

The group looked after him, completely stunned by the events that had just happened. How had a level five, classless player just taken on five of the top players in the game? They were in the middle of the top hundred of players, which would have surprised Frost to know.

“What the fuck just happened?” The mage said quietly to herself.

One of the warrior brothers who heard her responded, “I… I don’t know.”

The other brother punched a tree as he growled with rage, “I’m gonna kill that bastard if I ever see him again.” The three looked after him, feeling a burning rage building in their guts while the rogue stood off to the side thinking other things. No one had ever disrespected them like that, disregarding them and running away like a coward. They would get their revenge.

The very top players were all around level seventeen, with a few reaching level eighteen. Frost only looked at the top ten players, setting his sights on them so he knew where he needed to be. He probably wouldn’t catch up to them in level, but he planned to at least equal them in stats, if not surpass them. If he had more time to train and build up his character, he would be able to take out a group of players with a higher level than him in the future.

Frost was already beginning to surpass some of the higher-level players but he knew that he would only be able to take on the ones without much skill or ability. He could only take on the ones who only used their stats and skills to gang up on and beat up enemies until they died, without actually using tactics and strategy. He ran into the forest, once again deep in thought until he was certain that he was safe.

*Ding*

You have 5 new skills

Passive skill: Intermediate Weapon MasteryBeginner Lvl 1

You are skilled in using both your body and weapons. Damage will increase for weapons that you are skilled in.

Proficiency:

Swords

Staves

Fists

Damage increase: 5%

Passive/Active skill: Heavy BlowBeginner Lvl 1

Heavy Blow activates when you use your full strength to swing a weapon or fist

110% damage

consumes double stamina of a normal swing

Passive: Fearless AuraIn your search for greater strength, you have sought enemies stronger than you and triumphed. Fearless Aura will increase from fighting opponents with higher levels than you. Fearless aura will prevent weak opponents from starting a battle with you and apply a small stat boost to all stats when fighting stronger opponents.

Current aura level: 10

Active Skill: Lightning BladeBeginner Lvl 1

Increases attack speed by 20%

Ignores 10% of armor

Requires sword

Cost:

10 mana

5 stamina per second

Active Skill: Furious StrengthBeginner Lvl. 1

Increases damage by 10%

Cost:

20 mana

5 stamina per second

You can activate any active skill by saying the skill out loud or thinking the skill name.

Frost smiled. Apparently, he had to be level five to get combat skills, which would be created by the system’s combat data using his previous fights. Perhaps if he had been in more fights, he would have more or different skills. However, these five skills were all he needed and it seemed they were suited to him. It was nearing the end of the second week of the game’s release and he had the foundation he needed to reach the top. He rested for a bit before running off again, making sure he wouldn’t see that group again anytime soon. Their cleric wouldn’t be back for eight hours real world time but the rest of their group would still be a danger to him.

The only way he could protect himself would be to train and become stronger than them. He continued to train, finding stronger grein and the ice golems in this part of the forest. He continued to avoid the wolves and they didn’t bother him either. However, he couldn’t stand it anymore and started trying to befriend the wolves. He fed them grein meat, which he had an abundance of and tried to get closer to them. He had always wanted a dog, but his parents refused and he had to accept because all three of them were too busy to take care of one. His parents spent long hours at work while Reid had school and martial arts training.

Frost continued training and feeding the wolves for a few more days until he came across a wolf pack fighting a pair of grein. He watched as one of the gorilla-like beasts hit a wolf, launching it into a tree, killing it on impact. It appeared the wolves were losing the fight against the higher leveled grein. Of course, he wasn’t just going to watch wolves get slaughtered by some stupid beasts so he ran into the fight, quickly dispatching the grein, testing out the combined might of Lightning Blade and Bladed Fury. It ate up his stamina extremely quickly but its effect was clearly noticeable in how fast he killed the beasts.

The wolves immediately retreated to a safe distance while their leader warily watched Frost. He moved away from the wolves and crouched down, sword on one shoulder as he watched them. As they walked over to feast on the corpses, he noticed that one of them was injured, barely able to walk as it tried to limp around. He watched them as they left their injured companion behind, forced to do so because it would only slow them down and wolves could not afford to be slow.

Frost tried to walk over to the wolf but it growled ferociously, trying to hide the fact that it was injured by putting its paw down. He slowly took out the bandages he had in his pack, which was enough to wrap a single wound. He had a lot of useful supplies in small amounts, including a healing potion that was next to useless and other similar objects. Food was the only thing he had been given an abundance of. The bandages would help the injury recover faster and prevent the disease status, which could happen with certain injuries.

He dashed over and grabbed the wolf by the scruff of its neck, eliciting a whimper from the poor creature, which snapped at him. He shoved a large chunk of grein meat into its mouth, forced it onto its side on the ground and grabbed its injured leg above the injury. Frost sat on the ground and held the wolf down with leg strength. He saw that the wolf’s ankle was probably broken as he forcefully wrapped it, ignoring the struggles of the wolf as it tried to escape. He managed to wrap it up fine, but he couldn’t let the wolf walk so he continued to hold it down as he thought of a way to help the wolf and keep it off its feet. He ended up feeding it the potion that restored 25 health, frowning at its ineffectiveness.

The wolf continued to whimper until an hour had passed, during which, Frost had fallen onto his back, legs still holding the wolf down. Finally, the wolf surged to its feet and started to run about. It was fortunate that this was a game and everything, including monsters healed quickly. It was also lucky that nothing had stumbled upon them, because the wolf might have hurt itself while Frost was fighting or driving off whatever found them. The wolf stopped running and howled loudly, nose pointed towards the sky.

Suddenly, the area was full of a dense fog, where he couldn’t even see ten feet away. A figure walked out of the fog calmly, revealing itself to be a wolf that appeared to be made of silver, its eyes perfect sapphires. It sat in front of him and seemed to peer into his very soul. The wolf tilted its head in curiosity and he looked directly back at it, unashamed, nothing to hide from it.

‘I have peered into your past, your thoughts, and I thank you for protecting my ward. I am Calthos, spirit guardian of the wolves.’

Frost was stunned. The spirit spoke directly into his mind and the voice was that of something ancient and wise. He had gone out of his way to help a wolf just because of his love of dogs. An hour or two in game wasn’t really all that much and he could afford to relax for a bit considering how much he had increased his stats lately. The last thing he had expected was to summon the guardian of wolves.

“This seems a bit much, summoning a spirit guardian. All I did was help out a little. I don’t really expect a reward or anything.”

‘Indeed, I have not come to reward you. I have come to ask for your assistance in an important matter.’

“What matter is that?”

Frost would have sworn that the wolf smiled just slightly as it said, ‘My wolves have recently been attacked by many humans who have decided my peaceful wards are a threat. I cannot personally interfere and fight of these hunters, but I can get someone else to do it. My wolves will also be unable to fight in an organized manner or they risk retaliation from the humanoid armies. Therefore I must ask you, the only human blood to ever aid a wolf, kill the hunters. Instill in them a fear so that they will no longer hunt the wolves.’

Quest: The Wolf Spirit’s AngerThe spirit guardian of the wolves has asked you to kill and frighten those who have hunted wolves.

Rewards: unknown

Failure to accept:

Wolves will consider you an enemy

Difficulty: Unknown

If he accepted this quest, he would have to kill players and maybe NPCs. This quest would start his path down the road of becoming a dark player and there would likely be no return. This moment, this quest would determine how the rest of the game would turn out.

‘Don’t worry. If you do this for us, I will give you a mask so that they will not know whom it is that fights for us. It is better for them to worry and fear a faceless one than to have a name and face to attach their fear to.’

Frost laughed quietly as a wicked grin split his face. “I accept.”